Psychosis as a Cause of Mental Defect

Abstract

It is recognized that the differential diagnosis between psychosis and mental defect is apt to present difficulties; and the presence of aments in mental hospitals and of psychotics in homes for the mentally defective, though often due to lack of appropriate accommodation, suggests that the diagnostic problem is not always successfully solved. Hitherto, when a certified defective has been found to be psychotic, it has generally been assumed that psychosis has supervened on amentia, defectives being regarded as more prone to psychotic upset than are persons of normal intelligence. The alternative proposition—that mental defect may on occasions be due to psychosis in youth—has received comparatively little attention. This study is an attempt to find out whether psychotic illness beginning in childhood is an important cause of mental defect.